Books published by Marquand

Michael C. Spafford, one of the most respected and admired painters in the Northwest, has created a cohesive body of work of rare intelligence and power. Now professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Art, he began teaching in 1963 and was an influential and provocative teacher. Spafford remains an active painter who has never shied away from bold, often brutal universal themes. The rigorous physicality and formal invention inherent in his work enhance the viewerΓÇÖs visual understanding as well as the potency of the image.Widely exhibited, awarded, and collected, Spafford is best known for his fascination with myths of origin and heroic endeavor. His paintings, drawings, prints, and murals depict vivid episodes from epic poems and Greco-Roman mythology: ΓÇ£Leda and the Swan,ΓÇ¥ The Iliad and The Odyssey, ΓÇ£The Twelve Labors of Heracles,ΓÇ¥ to mention a few. Many of these narratives were revisited by Spafford over time in different formats in search of a better visual vignette. He strips these well-known narratives to their most emblematic elements, depicting them in a radically abstracted form, which illuminates these stories in a direct and visually affecting way. This book, the first monograph devoted to the artist, seeks to glimpse the breadth of SpaffordΓÇÖs explorations.

Traversing Parallels explores the work and life of American glass artist Michael Taylor, who has enjoyed a prominent career in the art glass world since 1967. The book focuses on work made from 2005 through 2017, exploring the conceptual progression of TaylorΓÇÖs work during this time and scrutinizing his notion of sociopolitical awareness and the responsibility of all artists to use their gifts to speak on social perspective. His cut and laminated glass constructions celebrate the progress of human ingenuity while also considering the wider implications of our impact on the world. Taylor himself provides autobiographical texts throughout the book, recounting his many years as a teacher of glass as well as his own education and evolution as an artist. With an exciting design and a wealth of images, this monograph makes a welcome addition to the history of contemporary American art glass.